Liberal Hypocrisy Begins With XL

Liberal billionaires reap the benefits of their XL pipeline lobbying and what do they get?

The exposure of left-wing hypocrisy, for one.

Liberal President Obama’s liberal government commissioned a study for the State Department run by liberal John Kerry, and the report stated the pipeline would have less environmental risk than the current mode of transporting by rail and 18-wheeler.

The report supports man-made climate change, and their research shows any risk to the Ogallalah Aquifer is negligible.

Liberals blather and work themselves into sweaty-browed hysteria over the aquifer being decimated by a leaky pipeline while the State Department’s (did I mention this is a liberal bureaucracy? Okay, I just didn’t want you to miss that point) comparative research estimates it would leak about 518 barrels of oil per year. That oil would be ground absorbed before reaching the water.

Since my liberal readers who have likely spilled their seven-dollar Starbucks lattes on their Birkenstocks by now wouldn’t appreciate any analysis from The Heritage Foundation, I direct your hand-woven hemp mouse to Brad Plumer’s Wonkblog at the Washington Post, as well as the actual report titled, “The Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for the XL Project.”

The big takeaway here is that the environmental impact of the XL pipeline is not only negligible, it’s more environmentally friendly than current transportation. About 5 to 8 times cleaner when you consider emissions from trucks and rail.

Your triumphant vote against the XL pipeline is “unlikely to significantly (reduce) the rate of extraction in the oil sands, or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the U.S.”

Bloomberg reports Canadian oil is pouring into the U.S.

“Keystone is kind of old news,” Sandy Fielden, director of energy analytics at Austin, Texas-based consulting company RBN Energy, said Nov. 12 in an e-mail. “Producers have moved on and are looking for new capacity from other pipelines.”

Oil exports from Canada to the Gulf Coast have increased by 83 percent in the past four years. Nearly double and growing.

More pipelines are being built that are not named “XL,” but that hardly matters in this exercise. As much as leftists fall into catatonic fits at the name “Koch Brothers,” billionaire hedge fund operator Tom Steyer is the major player in this game. As reported by The Washington Times, Steyer’s companies have reaped a billion dollars is government largesse thanks to the $100 million he, his companies and family have endowed to Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their party. Fighting the pipeline benefits his bottom line in green scheme government grants.

The most obvious hypocrisy of the left is exhibited by their decrying the TransCanada CEO’s claim of thousands of jobs being created by XL.

The U.S. State Department determined about 9,000 direct jobs would be created and another 33,000 ancillary jobs would be created during the two years of construction, followed by about 50 permanent jobs.

The CEO eventually conceded this to be an accurate estimate.

“AHA! No real jobs!” shout the liberals.

True. These are the same liberals cheering on Obama stimulus jobs that lasted a few weeks and then ended, putting those workers back home on the sofa.

The same liberals who didn’t think it very important to read the back pages data in official White House reports that show only 3 percent of his stimulus billions went to infrastructure. The same liberals who cheered millions of U.S. stimulus dollars and thousands of stimulus jobs going overseas.

I never cared about the pipeline one way or the other and have stood amazed by the uninformed activists who are unaware that the pipeline provides less pollution for oil that is heading to the gulf coast either way.

The jobs offered would be of the same nature as Obama’s.

The Koch brothers may or may not have profited as the pipeline might or might not have crossed land they own while billionaire hedge fund owner Steyer certainly does profit on the backs of middle class workers.

Rick Jensen

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